New Iowa Poll Shows Paul Accelerating Away From Romney

A new Iowa State University poll shows that Ron Paul is accelerating away from Mitt Romney in the race to capture the key Republican primary, with the Congressman placed first in front of Newt Gingrich, having captured more of former frontrunner Herman Cain’s supporters than Romney.

“Paul is the first choice of 27.5 percent of 333 likely caucus-goers among the 740 registered Republicans and 200 registered independents contacted by ISU,” reports KRCG.com. “That’s up from 20.4 percent in an ISU/Gazette/KCRG poll in November. He’s followed closely by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich whose support increased from 4.8 percent to 25.3 percent. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came in at 17.5 percent, up from 16.3.”

The results illustrate how Paul has easily outstripped Mitt Romney in capturing votes from Herman Cain supporters, after the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and national frontrunner dropped out last month.

“ISU pollsters were able to determine that Gingrich is the first choice of 38 percent of the former Cain supporters. Paul gets another 20 percent, Perry 14 percent and Romney 8.5 percent,” states the report.

The ISU poll echoes the trend of Ron Paul’s supporters being the most committed, whereas Romney and Gingrich voters are far more likely to waver.

“James McCormick, professor and chair of political science at Iowa State and coordinator of the poll, says the polling found that 51 percent of those naming the libertarian-leaning Texan as their first choice are “definitely” backing him. The percentage for the next two candidates is much weaker, at 16.1 percent for Romney and 15.2 for Gingrich, McCormick said.”

Ron Paul’s lead over Romney is unsurprising given the aggressive campaign his team has run in Iowa. Indeed, according to a CNN report last week, whereas Paul’s office was a hive of activity, Romney’s was still closed at mid-morning.

However, despite the campaign’s building momentum, the Republican establishment has gone all out to denigrate Paul’s success, even rhetorically sabotaging the legitimacy of the Iowa primary.

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who has been offered a potential VP slot under a Romney administration, ludicrously suggested that voters should completely disregard a Ron Paul victory and instead concentrate on which order Romney and Gingrich finish.

“People are going to look at who comes in second and who comes in third,” said Branstad, adding, ““If [Mitt] Romney comes in a strong second, it definitely helps him going into New Hampshire and the other states,” comments taken to mean that Republicans should “ignore” Ron Paul, according to Politico’s Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

Despite the fact that two out of the last three winners of the Republican primary in Iowa have gone on to become the GOP nominee, the corporate media has universally written off Paul’s chances in a callous effort to pre-empt reality. They are scared stiff that Paul could establish himself as a national frontrunner, which is a very real possibility given that he has captured a greater than expected number of Herman Cain’s voters, who himself was the national frontrunner before he was forced to drop out after revelations about his private life.

The snobbish, sneering attitude towards Paul that has been cultivated by the establishment has little to do with his chances of winning the overall nomination and everything to do with the guardians of the status quo being terrified of a Ron Paul administration going to war with a corrupt Washington elite, as Cenk Uygur explains in the commentary below.